Things I Appreciate: Very good teachers

A very good teacher doesn’t have to work in academia: people don’t need degrees to teach. I’m going to focus my post on the learning that occurs inside of the classroom, however, for simplicity’s sake.

I have taken courses from two very good professors in college and one in medical school. From the experiences, I have found trends:

Going into the course, there are expectations, high ones. Building expectations requires myth-building, the established lore. When the name is dropped, people respond. A percentage will have negative things to say. But a general, resounding positive aura will prevail over the hours of work and anxiety that follow the class. Students feel overwhelmed by newfound naivety. But everyone else feels the same way, so it’s okay to an extent. And the professor is understanding and knows what the students are feeling: they’ve been there too; they keep on pushing. The expectations are real and are not fulfilled. A lot is learned, but there is always more. The learning continues after the class so that when nostalgia calls, the student thinks about how on point they would be if they sat down on the class today. That’s what a really good professor does.